The United States followed through with its pledge to strip Ethiopia of its trade privileges under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) in response to “gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.” The U.S. Trade Representative announced on Saturday that Ethiopia, together with Mali and Guinea, would no longer enjoy duty-free access to the U.S. market as part of AGOA.
The move, first announced back in November, was widely expected. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and his allies had been pushing for the United States to reconsider, warning that the livelihoods of an estimated 200,000 people, mostly younger women, will be at stake. But that argument did not win out in Washington where lobbyists like Von Batten-Montague-York, L.C. celebrated the Biden administration’s punitive measures:
